HAPPY NEW YEAR!
I'm not one for New Year's resolutions, but one resolution I do have is that I want to make time for new writing. And by that, I don't mean editing or revising, but new fiction. To that end, I came across this quote by Margaret Atwood from a Paris Review Interview in 1990.
“Every novel is—at the beginning—the same opening of a door onto a completely unknown space.” ~ Margaret Atwood 1990, Paris Review
I thought it was a very fitting start for the New Year. A new beginning.
As we know, beginning something is easy. How a new gym membership pans out after that crucial six week mark is the telling point and when things can become a little more difficult.
In saying I'm making a commitment to new fiction, I may need to reduce my blogging time, or at least reduce how much time I spend on each blog. But nothing's written in stone. It's all still a new beginning right?But what will I write? I can't be specific, but I have been enjoying re-learning how to write short stories over the past couple of months. It is quite a change from the previous years I've spent on novel writing. But I'm still querying agents with my second novel, Under The Bed. And I'm revising my first novel, Radio Echo so...who know's...the year is young. Let's see how quickly I can write!
In the same interview with Margaret Atwood, the interview asks "Do writers perceive differently than others? Is there anything unique about the writer’s eye?" An interesting question I thought. This is part of her response:-
The unique thing about writers is that they write. Therefore they are pickier about words, at least on paper. But everyone “writes” in a way; that is, each person has a “story”—a personal narrative—which is constantly being replayed, revised, taken apart, and put together again. The significant points in this narrative change as a person ages—what may have been tragedy at twenty is seen as comedy or nostalgia at forty. All children “write.” (And paint, and sing.) I suppose the real question is why do so many people give it up. Intimidation, I suppose. Fear of not being good. Lack of time.
To me that was an important point, because I often ask myself why is this important to me, why do I feel the need to keep creating new worlds to populate? I think it's important to me not to quit as much as anything else. But I also need to have something to say, to have a comment on the world in the work. It's not that I wouldn't consider writing, for example a light romance. I certainly have great admiration for those who do so and do it well. But for me, if I'm going to spend three + years on a 100,000 word novel, it has to say something. Whether I succeed or not is another matter, but I need to at least try. There has to be a purpose behind the work, not just storytelling for story telling's sake.
The year is new, and January is a good month for lofty goals. What are yours?
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